


On My Way

by fandomsrulequeen



Category: Transformers: Prime
Genre: AU after Se1Ep20 Partners, Angst, Fluff, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, I have never written a transformers fanfic before so FORGIVE ME, I hope, In later chapters - Freeform, about anorexia probably, after all the slag i make him go through, but it would be mild don't worry, i think, sensitive topics, starscream needs hugs
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-03-23
Updated: 2019-03-23
Packaged: 2019-11-28 15:21:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,664
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18210083
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fandomsrulequeen/pseuds/fandomsrulequeen
Summary: The blood moon is on the riseThe fire's burning in my eyesNo, nobody else can give me sayAnd I'm on my way.[Lyrics from Alan Walker's On My Way]They know him by the name Starscream. Some just call him 'Megatron's second' or 'that guy that workds under Megatron'. The Autobots just saw him as a deceiful and backstabbing Decepticon, which, truthfully, he is, or was. A series of events clash into one another, and the former Decepticon Second In Command finds himself in the Autobot base surrounded by those he swore to be enemies with, all those vorns ago. Unfortunately (or fortunately) ideals and visions change in war, and will the autobots find it in their sparks to accept the mech as one of their own?TL;DR: Starscream doesn't run off in the episode 'Partners' and is stuck with the autobots. (Everything prior to Arcee holding a blade to Starscream's neck is canon, things veer off course afterwards.)





	On My Way

**Author's Note:**

> Okay first off, I am actually excited (and really nervous) for this. No kidding, because I am actually invested in this fic unlike the other (failed) multi-chaptered fics I tried writing. I am really invested in Starscream from tfp, and I do hope this fic does him justice. Also I haven't really gotten a hang of writing active dialogue yet, so please forgive me if everything seems a little...disconnected and passive. I swear I will get the hang of it soon. In the meantime...please enjoy! Oh, reviews and constructive criticism is always open, so do not be shy to drop one down there in the comments box.

_“You were the one! You extinguished Cliffjumper!”_

_“No-no PLEASE! I-That was the past! I am one of you now!”_

Frag him and his stupid pride.

Starscream knew he had the tendency of running his mouth when his self esteem was being tested, but this should probably outshine all his previous records. The silver Seeker internally cursed at everything as he dodged under yet another round of blaster fire from the enraged femme . He cursed at that two-faced glitch Airachnid, at his oh so wise and mighty ex-master for blindly believing everything uttered by said glitch, at Cliffjumper, at Arcee, and at his forever bad luck. But most of all, he cursed himself, because why had he not just staunched his pride and not run his mouth, especially in a time where he could not afford to be on the autobots’ bad side?

He also cursed the Prime and his team, because _where the slag were they when one actually needs them_?

Starscream ducked under another fist and staggered when servos founds his side to throw him off. The wing clamp on his wings only served to off-balance him further and he stumbled, falling clumsily onto the rough rocks and landing painfully on his clamped wings with Arcee pinning him down. He struggled weakly, but revenge and rage was on the two-wheeler’s side as she held the silver Seeker firmly in place. Her servo transformed into a razor sharp blade and she raised it up, intent of ramming it straight into the defenceless mech’s neck.

“Come on! Do it! Megatron would have me terminated for treason if I return to the Decepticons. You might as well be the one that puts me out of my misery!” Starscream growled, knowing what he said was meant to be a (albeit useless) way to buy himself more time for escape, but he couldn’t help the painful clenching of his spark when he hissed out the last word like it was poison, or the way his processor tried bringing up many things in history that he tried the hardest to forget but still haunted him in the dead of the lunar cycle. Still he thrashed, hoping to somehow loosen the femme’s grip on his arms. The wing clamp was still not helping.

_~~A small part of him was screaming, panicking internally because this position was painfully familiar in the dark rooms of the Nemesis. He didn’t want more pain, more agony and torture from someone stronger than him. He just wanted it all to end.~~ _

_“_ As if I need convincing,” Arcee scoffed icily, lifting the blade to prepare its acquisition with the seeker’s exposed neck cables.

“Wait — what — no!”

Instinct took over Starscream’s processor as he jerked his helm to side and watched with wide optics as the blade stabbed into where his neck cables were just mere nanoklicks ago. He had no idea what overcame him, but the sudden desire to live on escape protectprotectPROTECT was fuelled by a strength he didn’t know he still had. With a gasp, the Seeker lashed out with his pedes and they clumsily connected with Arcee’s waist, throwing the blue Autobot off him. Starscream scrambled to his pedes and put a good few yards between Arcee and him, claws flexing as he tried recovering from his near offlinement ordeal and pushing his panic to the side. The Seeker glared at the femme on the ground and couldn’t help the vicious stab of something in his spark as he continued backing away from the downed femme.

_~~It was acquisition. He knew it was, and that they were similar in many ways, yet completely different.~~ _

“That’s the best you’ve got?” He taunted, servos curling into fists. “I think I see it now — the weak ones go with the weak ones, isn’t that right, Arcee? How much longer are you going to keep it up, sidling yourself with mechs that can’t even protect themselves from being offlined? ” He kept up the smirk, resolutely ignoring the whispers of being weak pushing at the edge of his processor.

Something seemed to snap in Arcee’s optics as her helm whipped up to shoot daggers into Starscream’s frame. “Shut UP!” The Autobot screeched in unrepented fury as she pushed herself painfully to her pedes, servos transforming into blasters again. She opened her mouth to say something, then thought better of it, and started firing shots at the silver mech instead. “You know NOTHING about personal connections, about how to CARE for others. It’s always about yourself isn’t it, Starscream?” Arcee’s blue optics clouded slightly before they cleared, filling with rage again. “I bet you NEVER know anything about sparkbreak! Never knew the meaning of emotional attachment! _NEVER KNEW THE MEANING OF WHAT IT IS LIKE TO LOSE THE ONE YOU CARED DEEPLY FOR — TWICE_!” Arcee cut her tirade off to lunge at Starscream again, only to pause when the grey Seeker suddenly seemed to tense and pause at her words. The femme started for a nanoklick at the unexpected reaction, before anger started eating at her spark again. She glared at Cliffjumper’s killer, and her puzzlement was instantly replaced with the all-too-familiar anger.

Arcee stalked forward furiously, and rapped a blaster against Starscream’s helm. “Fight,” She snarled, figure tense despite her injuries, knowing that Cliffjumper would not have fought a defenceless mech, unlike the one standing in front of her. Starscream jumped at the treatment, quite literally, and lashed out with his claws with an unexpected, wordless snarl. Arcee jumped back, blasters raised, and had one moment to be taken aback by the sheer intensity of unguarded emotion in the Seeker’s optics before it was gone, replaced by a familiar gleam of malice and cunningness. “D-do-“ Starscream winced internally at the stutter in his voice and reset his vocaliser, hoping the femme hadn’t caught it. “Do you really think so?” He snapped, uncharacteristically riled up as he dodged more shots from Arcee’s blasters. The blue femme scoffed disbelievingly, running to sidekick him only for him to dodge around and spin to the other side.

Arcee growled in frustration but entertained Starscream nonetheless. “More than you’d like to believe,” she muttered, and lifted her blasters to strike again. “Not that you would know, given the totally lack of regard you show towards your prisoners or bots. Slag, you probably treat the ones in your factions horribly too,” the femme scoffed again, shaking her helm. “You probably toss dark energon shards into the greyed, dead chassises of those poor Vehicons just for the sake of it!” Her spark clenched at the thought of Cliffjumper’s fate again, but she quelled it, reminding herself that she would mourn later.

There was a pause, and Arcee was lifted her blasters yet again, intending to strike with the barrel when Starscream’s voice stopped her.

“...It’s not that black and white.”

_~~He recalled flashes of a past life, when he was a carefree winglord-to-be soaring and claiming the vast skies of Cybertron with his wing brothers, without a care for a world and with all the happiness a mech without war could dwell in. He recalled kind blue optics gazing down at him with such fondness it hurt. He recalled the screams of panic and death as the beautiful spires of his city blazed to ground, forever dark and silent and reeking of death. He recalled the spark wrenching shatter of his spark as his trinemates fell to the ground, optics dark and frames greyed, and he would do anything to join them again.~~ _

Arcee stared in disbelief at the mech in front of her, shuttering and unshuttering her optics incredulously. The emotion in Starscream’s voice was something she did not dare recognise, and Arcee paused in her actions to look at Starscream with poorly concealed surprise mixing in with the anger and fury.

“What do you mean, it’s not that black and white? Of course it is!” Arcee spluttered and narrowed her optics challengingly. “If not, do pray tell, what shades of grey am I missing here?”

There was a lengthy pause as both Cybertronians looked away from each other in silence. Starscream ex vented heavily. “This is a war, Arcee,” he murmured, the emotion Arcee still did not dare recognise lacing the words heavily. “We all lose the ones we love and care for, and I know it’s not...pleasant.”

~~_“We shall fly together forevermore, as long as our sparks beat, they beat as one. This is our oath as wing brothers.”_ ~~

~~_“Take them and go, Star. You wouldn’t want to keep them waiting.”_ ~~

~~_“After this we’ll be back on the Nemesis and stealing high grade again! All we gotta do is - AHHH-“_ ~~

~~_“Skywarp!”_ ~~

~~_“He will find us, you, wherever you are. Offline him for me, Star. My spark shall walk with you — always.”_ ~~

The femme was gaping incredulously at Starscream now, because what exactly just happened? “It’s hard,” the Seeker continued on as if he hadn’t just shattered Arcee’s world view of him. “And you just feel like, it should’ve been you instead.” Something flashed in Starscream’s optics, and Arcee swore at that moment, just at that moment, she stopped seeing him as her partner’s terminator. Incredulity cloaked over anger, however briefly, and she was left gaping at the Seeker. Arcee had no chance to reply, however, as the uncharacteristic sadness from Starscream lifted (or concealed?) from him as abruptly as it descended. The silver mech seemed to come out of his reverie and he righted himself, grinning maliciously as he prepared to lunge at the recovering Arcee who was slowly drawing out her blades at his change of demeanour. “And soon the autobots will lose another one that they care f- ARGH!”

Arcee had one moment to see the unspeakable emotion fully hide behind the fierceness of red optics before Starscream suddenly gave a cry and crumpled limply to the ground, optics offlining abruptly with a soft gasp.

The two wheeler blinked as the outline of Starscream was suddenly replaced by a larger, bulkier olive frame of a wrecker whose mace was disengaging away into servos. Her optics travelled to the two other mechs standing behind Bulkhead, covered in scratches and scuffles, and she could only guess what happened. An optical ridge raised, and Arcee placed a servo in her hip. “Really?”

“Sorry,” Bulkhead shrugged unapologetically as he glanced at the fallen mech with no small amount of contempt in his optics. “Thought ol’Screamer here was attacking you so I knocked him out for you. Why’s he out of statis cuffs anyway? Did he swipe the keys when you weren’t looking? Tricked you into opening his cuffs? Optimus, I told you we shouldn’t have left ‘Cee alone with the Screamer — she could have been killed and he would’ve-“

“Bulkhead, it’s fine, leave it.” Arcee snapped shortly, her temper wearing thin. She didn’t know what was stopping her from saying what exactly happened, but she didn’t feel like mentioning that ‘the Screamer’ was the one who offlined one of the members on their team.

The femme cast a critical eye over the team, her rage and questions fading temporarily and her blasters folded back into servos which crossed over her waist. Her frame was the picture of calm, but her processor was still reeling, running overtime as it tried making sense of what Starscream had just told her moments before. He made it sound as if he had lost people before...no. It couldn’t be possible, anyways. Arcee knew ‘Cons, and if one thing she learnt from them was that they never care for anything except themselves. But then...the femme knew the emotion she saw in the seeker’s optics and it even looked...genuine, if that word could be associated with Starscream in any way. With a soft, frustrated growl, Arcee filed the information away, intent on deciphering it later. She decided to skip formalities, and in a sharp voice, demanded, straight to the point with one word. “Airachnid?”

Bulkhead and Bumblebee shifted uncomfortably.

“Airachnid escaped.” Optimus replied after some hesitation. “We managed to acquire the Immobilizer, but she got away by drilling a hole into the ground.” The Prime raised his servos soothingly when Arcee’s optics widened and rage filled them again. He knew the two femme’s’ history, and could not fault her reaction.

“Well, what the scrap are we still doing here?!” The two wheeler shouted incredulously when no mech moved. “We need to find her! We are not letting her out of our sight again — we had a perfect chance of taking her! You should let me on the field, Optimus, I could have taken her. I could have- I can-“ Arcee would have said more, but she suddenly gasped when her injured side finally made itself known, throbbing and searing with a vengeance as she dropped to a knee, servo grasping at the claw wounds that was still leaking energon. Bumblebee rushed forward then, providing support and helping her to her pedes again.

“I think we need to return to base now, and get you checked up by Ratchet.” Optimus rumbled, concern entering his gaze as he looked at Arcee’s injured side. “Bulkhead, take Starscream. I have the Immobilizer.” The Prime moved to active his comm link to contact the base, and frowned disapprovingly when the wrecker carelessly tossed the limp Seeker over his shoulder. " _Gently_ , Bulkhead."

The olive mech muttered something unintelligible but complied.

“Wait,” Arcee raised her voice from where she was leaning against Bumblebee. “You’re actually gonna take him? He can’t become an autobot! He just-“ The words died on her glossa before she could utter them, and Arcee blinked, wondering why in the name of Primus could she not just tell them that Starscream offlined Cliffjumper. The femme opened and closed her mouth a few times, and Bumblebee beeped a question, asking her if she was alright.

“I’m fine,” Arcee grumbled again. “But Starscream-“

“Everyone deserves a second chance, Arcee,” Optimus Prime reasoned with all his calmness. “Even Starscream. If he can prove useful to our cause, and if he really does want to defect, what position are we in to stop him?” The Prime regarded the two wheeler with wise optics, tone unfairly reasonable. “We have lost too many mechs and femmes in this prolonged war, Arcee. If having Starscream on our side is one step closer to ending it, I do not think there is a problem with it.”

 _Because he fragging offlined my partner!_ Arcee wanted to shout, to yell across the whole universe and beyond for every mech to hear. And yet, nothing came out of her mouth as she nodded reluctantly. “We will eventually find it in us to accept him as one of us,” Optimus sighed. Bulkhead raised an optical ridge from his position next to Optimus. The green mech scoffed disbelievingly, shaking his helm slowly. “No offence Prime, but that will either not happen, or it’ll happen when we’re offline.” 

The Prime merely ex vented again and touched his comm link. “Optimus to base,” he spoke. “We require a groundbridge back. And prepare the medbay; Arcee requires medical attention.” There was a pause, and he spoke again. “We also have a...detainee...as of the moment. Do not be alarmed.” There was a pause, likely to be Ratchet grumbling about ‘losing too much energon faster than replenishable’, before the familiar hiss of an opening grounbridge flooded every mech’s audio receptors.

As a groundbridge opened up in front of the group, Arcee’s thoughts floated back to the words Starscream uttered all those klicks ago. Her processor involuntarily drifted to one phrase, and lingered.

_We all lose ones we love and care for._

Her optics brightened slightly, then dimmed as she stepped into the bridge.

_To accept Cliff’s killer as one of us._

Arcee did not know why she hated to say it, but she just could not see it happening, whatever the reason. The green energy consumed her and left her with only one thought.

_We shall see._

 

 

 

 

 


End file.
